helping you organize

The Book of Household Management

noreply@blogger.com (Lelah Baker-Rabe) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:10:00 +0000

Though the phrase "A place for everything, and everything in its place," may predate the publication of the book The Book of Household Management, it surprised me that the saying is generally attributed to the author of that volume, Mrs. Isabella Beeton. The book was published in 1861 and is a handbook for a woman running a household in Victorian England. It never occurred to me that the quote could be traced back to one person. It's a marvelous aphorism that holds up in any era.

"A place for everything, and everything in its place," must be her rule, in order that time may not be wasted in looking for things when they are wanted, and in order that the whole apparatus of cooking may move with the regularity and precision of a well-adjusted machine;—all must go on simultaneously.

~Mrs. Beeton, The Book of Household Management

You can download a free copy of The Book of Household Management in numerous formats from Project Gutenberg.

How many days until...

noreply@blogger.com (Lelah Baker-Rabe) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:15:00 +0000

It seems there is always something to look forward to and celebrate. For instance, today is Mardi Gras.

And there are...
29 days until the NAPO National Conference (March 21-24)
56 days until taxes are due (April 17)
82 days until Mother's Day (May 13)
117 days until Father's Day (June 17)
307 days until Christmas (December 25)
and 53 days until my baby is due!

Timeanddate.com is a good free resource for figuring out the days to an event, plus other useful tidbits of information relating to the date and time. They also have various apps for your mobile devices that could come in handy.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Karrett Barbosa

The state of my closet

noreply@blogger.com (Lelah Baker-Rabe) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:34:00 +0000

As I write this post, my clothes closet is something of shambles. The top shelf, meant for purses and hats, is a jumble of both of those plus a few scarves for some reason. The main clothes hanging area, usually organized by color and then by article of clothing type, isn't too bad, but more than half of what is hanging there isn't currently in circulation, due to my pregnant state. The bottom, which has a built-in shoe incline, looks the worst, with an errant overnight bag vying for space with a dozen jumbled pair of shoes, again, only two of which I'm actually wearing at the moment. I'm lucky in that I have a dedicated deep cupboard above the closest that is perfect for luggage storage. The overnight bag usually lives up there, but I've been using it semi-frequently and putting it away, which involves getting my step ladder from another room, seems more trouble than it's worth lately.

Why am I sharing my closet woe with you? Well, I think it's always nice to hear someone who is supposed to have organization down to a science admit to imperfection. Professional organizers are people too. But this story also illustrates how easy it is for a well-conceived system to fall apart when you don't spend the time to maintain it.Your clothes won't put themselves away by color and type. If that's how you want them, you have to put them away that way. And in the last few weeks, a meticulous closet hasn't been at the top of my priority list. That's okay. The good news is that even though I haven't been maintaining it, because I do have a system in place, it will take me much less time to return it to its organized state than if I was starting from scratch.

You'll notice I only included the "before" picture. Closet maintenance will rise to the top of the list one of these days, so until then, you'll have to imagine the "after" shot.

The Plunge

noreply@blogger.com (Lelah Baker-Rabe) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:30:00 +0000

Earlier this month I gave a workshop titled Take the Paperless Plunge to almost 30 professional organizers. The workshop covered everything from the history of the paperless movement to the features of some of the top of the line scanners out there. It was so much fun adapting my paperless office workshop for a professional organizer audience, and I was amazed at the insightful questions and comments that the attendees shared throughout the workshop. There were both experienced and novice organizers present, and within that group a mix of comfort levels regarding both paperless organizing and the technology that paperless organizing usually entails.

The three hours I had been allotted went by way too quickly, so I felt that I had much left to share at the end of the session, but we packed a lot in and spent a lot of time in dialogue, which was important.

The workshop was made possible by the Professional Organizers Learning Academy (POLA) committee of NAPO-LA, and in particular I want to thank Jean Furuya, who is known throughout the professional organizing community for her commitment to education and tireless good cheer and helpfulness.

I'm not sure when the next time I'll be presenting a workshop will be, but I'll keep you posted right here on the blog and via my newsletter, Lelah's News, which you should sign up for now!

February calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Lelah Baker-Rabe) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:40:00 +0000

February has always been one of my favorite months. It's short, to the point and is always full of fun activities for me, as it contains both the anniversaries of my business launching and being with my husband, as well as my half-birthday, which also happens to be Valentine's Day. This year, I'll be having a baby shower in February as well, plus it's a Leap Year.

I celebrate my third year in business this month, and have to say that it feels good to get there - lots of small business struggle in the first few years of business, if they last at all. I've had a steep learning curve while being in business for myself, but it has been tremendously rewarding. I'm thankful to so many people for helping me along the way, from my family and friends and local solopreneur contacts, to my amazing colleagues in the professional organizing community here in Los Angeles and around the world.

Entrepreneurship isn't for everybody, but it has most definitely been a positive path for me. I highly encourage people who aren't happy in their careers or who are under- or unemployed to consider creating a job for themselves.

Have a happy and productive month, everyone!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by epSos.de

A DMV story

noreply@blogger.com (Lelah Baker-Rabe) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

I had a recent experience with the California Department of Motor Vehicles - and it was a positive one.

I needed them to resend a document to my home, and found both their website and phone service to be highly functional. They have the service where instead of waiting on hold for 40 minutes, they take your number and call you back when it is your turn. I love not having to listen to tinny music and be interrupted every minute by an automated voice telling you it isn't your turn yet. Then, I had an extremely friendly and helpful person on the other end of the line when they called me back. She solved my problem in just a couple of minutes, and when we got disconnected (my phone's fault) toward the end of the call, she called me back and left a message saying that everything was going through and I should receive what I needed to by the end of the week. Which I did. Amazing! Since the DMV is widely considered one of those agencies you want to have as little to do with as possible, I wanted to point out a good experience that I had with them. Keep up the good work, DMV!

Lelah with an h is growing!

noreply@blogger.com (Lelah Baker-Rabe) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:30:00 +0000

**This post was originally published in my monthly e-newsletter, Lelah's News. Don't subscribe? Sign up here!

I have some exciting news: my husband and I are expecting our first child, a boy, in April. We're thrilled to be expanding our family, and I wanted to finally share the news with my amazing clients and supporters.

Impending parenthood has a way of putting thing in perspective, and it has tuned me in to physical and temporal limitations that I've never had to consider before. Therefore, I'll be transitioning away from hands-on organizing work at the end of March, for a while, at least. This means right now is a great time to put into action all your plans to get organized! After April, I will be growing my business in other ways. I plan to maintain my blog, newsletter and social media profiles, and I have wonderful, talented professional organizer colleagues to whom I will be referring new clients when I am no longer able to take them on. I'm always learning about new organizing methods, trends and theories, and will continue my education in this amazing field. Also, I'm hoping to expand the speaking area of my business, so I can share my knowledge with a greater audience.

Thanks for your support as I navigate these changes to my life and business!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Carly Franklin

Software updates

noreply@blogger.com (Lelah Baker-Rabe) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:10:00 +0000

How often do you download and install software updates on your computer? Most operating systems make it easy as clicking a button to set this process in motion, and they will remind you when critical updates are needed. Some software has to be manually updated. But if you are using a computer, you need to do the software updates. Don't think of it as optional. This is mandatory maintenance.

I find people are resistant to updating for one or more of a few reasons: they think it will take too long, they don't think it's necessary for their programs to run, or they are afraid that updating will do some harm to their program or their computer. In general, software updates are essential for keeping a machine running efficiently, and any time spent downloading and installing updates (which can usually be done in the background while you work on other things) is minuscule compared to the time you may spend if you find yourself losing speed and functionality by using outdated software.

So get in the habit if clicking Yes! when asked if you would like to perform software updates now. Update early, and update often.

Need a professional to help you get updated?

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

helping you organize

The Book of Household Management

How many days until...

The state of my closet

The Plunge

February calendar

A DMV story

Lelah with an h is growing!

Software updates

In my reading pile

Lelah's News

Paperless tips

The Refill Shoppe

The importance of an alarm clock

Tax season special!

Baking tips

What's so great about Evernote?

Take the Paperless Plunge

New Year's To Do List

Celebrating accomplishments

Happy Christmas!

Wrapping paper leftovers

Paperless reminder: download your statements

A little Christmas cheer

Keeping ahead of your health

Lelah With An H on social media